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Reviews: Affordable 6.5” Two Way Components Review

The main speakers are the single most important aspect of your sound system because they have more governance over the final quality of the sound than any other component. You can have cheap amplifiers and a basic source unit, but with awesome sounding speakers it can sound awesome.

Alternatively, you can have a mega dollar ‘SQ’ amplifier and high-end source unit but if the speakers sound like crud that’s exactly what you’ll end up with every time.

So, can you actually buy what could be considered a truly ‘high-end’ sounding component speaker set for under $300? Certain logic says no, you can’t. Budget oriented component speaker systems are invariably aimed at younger buyers with far less listening experience. Since these newbies may have only ever heard music through a something with a Logitech badge on it they’re prone to blindly buy any rubbish sounding speakers so long as they have a million watts stamped on them and feature funky coloured speaker grilles. That may sound a little cynical but sadly it is true of many affordable component speakers on the market.

How exactly can you tell a pretender from the real thing without listening to them? Well, for a start you should never buy speakers without auditioning them, but as a general rule I’ve always found that the simpler and more sedate looking speakers tend to sound the best, whereas the brightly coloured ones with silly grille covers tend to sound less good. Sure, that’s no guarantee, but in my experience it has proven a pretty good guide line. Those manufacturers who focus hard on creating great sounding speakers tend not to garnish them with tinsel and glitter.

Which brings us neatly to this, the first of our group reviews and the first of a number of group reviews you’ll be seeing in the future on MEA. We invited suppliers to provide us component sets in various price ranges, and the first group was priced under $300 per pair with some considerably less than this.

To be honest I went into this price category with rather modest expectations, but I’m delighted to say that after I’d concluded the auditions I came away truly amazed at some of the incredible sounding speaker sets you can buy for such a low, low budget. Read on.

 

Crescendo Opus 1

Woofer design

  • Diameter: 165mm
  • Cone material: Polypropylene
  • Basket material: Pressed steel

Tweeter design

  • Diameter: 25mm
  • Dome material: Fabric
  • Mounting: Flush

Crossover

  •  Slope: 3.5kHz 12dB LP/12dB HP
  • Tweeter attenuation: 0, -3, -4dB

Comments

When you unpack the Crescendo Opus 1 component you get the impression that they’ve definitely been designed and created by people who care about how they sound. There’s no flashy speaker grilles (none at all actually!) and the tweeters are permanently housed in a flush fit housing with no other means of securing them other than screws. There are no speaker wires and no gaskets provided either. What you do get, however, are three pairs of very expertly crafted components – each with its own individual serial number. In this way, Crescendo is saying “spend your money on the bits that matter and do the rest of the installation work yourself”.

The MBL-6 165mm midrange drivers feature understated polypropylene cones mated to rubber surround and driven by modest ferrite magnets. The T1RP tweeters, meanwhile, are nice large 25mm fabric dome units and come fitted with integral steel mesh grilles as well as high a short length of high end type speaker wire attached. The X1 passive crossovers are by far the most highly engineered of all the affordable models in this comparison, and are what you’d expect to see on sets costing three times the price. The internal components are high grade, laid onto large area PCB boards and with 0, -2 or -4dB attenuation for the tweeters. It all bodes very well indeed.

Audition

And so it played out during the auditions. This is a fabulous sounding set of speakers and I’m staggered at their sublime performance from the paltry RRP of just $249. Like the Morel Maximo set below, these exhibited an excellent ability to play genuine full range sound with controlled and fluent mid bass backed by a very solid octave of output stretching down to 50Hz. I think they probably offer to most neutral tonal balance from pass band to pass band of all of these sets, which at lower volumes causes them to sound slightly dull in dynamics, but this is made up for amply at medium to high volumes and bodes well for lower ongoing fatigue.

Verdict

If you’ve got OEM speaker positions to work with the installation of the Opus 1 set will be easy for you as they’ll slot straight in reasonably fuss free. If you’ve got an older car then maybe some custom fabrication is in order. It will be worth it, as these are a true bargain with no audible shortcoming whatsoever. While not as defined in the midrange as the Hertz set they are a better balanced set overall, and with their stellar lower octave performance you can happily use them without aid of a subwoofer if required.

 

Hertz ESK165

Woofer design

  • Diameter: 165mm
  • Cone material: Polypropylene
  • Basket material: Pressed steel

Tweeter design

  •  Diameter: 20mm
  • Dome material: Tetolon
  • Mounting: Flush, angled surface, OEM

Crossover

  •  Slope: 3.5kHz 6dB LP/12dB HP
  • Tweeter attenuation: -2, 0 or +2dB

Comments

At $299 the Hertz ESK 165 are at the pricier end of this group but justify this with the best overall build quality and an excellent installation package. They’re so nicely built you’d be excused for thinking they were made in Italy, though they actually hail from China. No matter, the construction is first rate and they don’t have that ‘churned out of the same factory as everything else’ look or feel about them that others like the Orion and Phoenix Gold sets suffer from.

You get a pair of very compact 20mm Tetolon (fabric) dome tweeters complete with flush, angled surface and OEM mounting rings, a 165mm polypropylene cone midrange with rubber edge surround, and nice compact EX200 passive crossover. The crossover’s components are basic but it does house 3-level tweeter attenuation. The set also boasts a hefty 100WRMS power handling, though I’d suggest this was when used with an appropriate high pass filter added into the input signal.

Audition

This was the very first component set I auditioned and straight of the box the ESK 165s didn’t disappoint. They served up a very nice overall tonal balance with generally good linearity. The treble is vibrant and detailed, though it did show that typical ‘small diameter thinness’ you always get with small domes compared to larger diameters. If you set the attenuation carefully to match the mounting position it’s easy to arrive at a nice balance, but set the level too hot and the treble can get a little brittle at higher volumes – as expected.

Most notable were the vocals, which jumped out of the mix with fulsome delivery and great articulation. This was made clearer in the tonal mix given the slight lack of mid bass power and gusto. Sure the mid bass was defined and controlled but I found it lacked weight and authority. Curiously, the very lower octaves were clearly audible and nicely resolved. After I’d completed the auditions I came back to the Hertz ESK 165 set and concluded that the added midrange detail (possibly due to the lower mid bass balance) allowed them to offer the most pinpoint accuracy of image placement of the vocals. Both the Morel and Crescendo sets offer a full, ballsier sound, and suffer less defined centre focus because of this.

Verdict

The Hertz ESK 165 has all the bases covered if you’re looking for an affordable and accurate sounding component speaker set that’s also an absolute doddle to install. Aside from the slight shyness in mid bass power I find this set extremely hard to fault, and when teamed with a suitable subwoofer they will create the foundation of an outstanding budget SQ system.

 

Morel Maximo 6

Woofer design

  •  Diameter: 165mm
  • Cone material: Polypropylene/paper
  • Basket material: Pressed steel

Tweeter design

  •  Diameter: 25mm
  • Dome material: Soft
  • Mounting: Flush, angled surface, angled pod

Crossover

  •  Slope: 3.8kHz 6dB LP/6dB HP
  • Tweeter attenuation: No

Comments

Morel speakers hail from Israel, and the Maximo 6 are the most affordable 165mm component set they produce at $228RRP. Don’t let the price fool you, the Maximo 6 features some stellar build attributes, and in particular the 25mm soft dome tweeters are notable for sharing similar design cues with their illustrious higher end stable mates. Their mounting kits feature a choice or flush, angled pods, or larger angled pedestals. The midrange drivers are elegant and simple, with cones that sandwich polypropylene and paper, rubber edge surrounds and bespoke Morel baskets. The maximo crossovers are tiny and hence they can squeeze into tight confines. While no tweeter attenuation is afforded, the internal components are decent quality.

Audition

From the very first note of the very first song I could tell that the Maximo 6 set was created by engineers who care about sonic accuracy. Fluent, fulsome, rich and dynamic are all words that describe their sound, and the foundation for this is a solid bass reproduction teamed with highly articulate treble response from the 25mm tweeters. By comparison the Hertz ESK 165s exhibited great midrange detail and more solid image focus, but while the enhanced mid bass afforded by the Maximos did blur the image slightly they more than made up for it with the smoothest overall tonal balance.

Verdict

The Morel Maximo 6 is the perfect example of what happens when a quality focused speaker company sets its mind to producing an affordable speaker range. The Maximo 6 set is simply astounding value and will happily compete against speakers as much as three times its price toe to toe. While they scored second in the subjective auditions I actually preferred their sound overall thanks to their more articulate treble. You’ll be amazed at what just $228 buys you, and you just may never need to upgrade from here.

 

Phoenix Gold R65CS

Woofer design

  • Diameter: 165mm
  • Cone material: Polypropylene
  • Basket material: Pressed steel

Tweeter design

  • Diameter: 19mm
  • Dome material: Mylar
  • Mounting: Flush, angled pod

Crossover

  • Slope: 12dB LP/12dB HP
  • Tweeter attenuation: No

Comments

Phoenix Gold’s RC65CS component set is a curious mix of construction values. When it came time to decide on the specifications for this set the engineering team decided on using pukka spun alloy phase plugs at the centre of the 165mm midrange drivers, then chose basic foam edge surrounds over more robust and weather resistant rubber. Similarly, the same team specified the passive crossovers with pricier SPIRIT brand 100V capacitors, and then they used mylar (plastic) for the tweeter domes. While the $199RRP of the RC65CS is certainly very affordable I think given 99% of OEM systems use mylar (‘coz its cheap) that any prospective upgrade speaker set should be endowed with a better quality tweeter material. Dice those phase plugs and give me a 25mm silk dome instead, please.

Overall construction quality is precisely what a budget aimed set, but you get swivel angle capable flush tweeter mounting kits as well as surface angled pods, generous lengths of decent quality speaker wires, and even foam gaskets for each midrange speaker.

Audition

The RC65CS component set actually sounded okay during my auditions. Sure, the mylar tweeters provide their A-typical zingy sonic traits, thinning out treble sounds and adding an almost low bit rate MP3 type of colouration to the sound – and yet it’s still pleasant enough to listen to if not strictly natural. Likewise, the midrange and mid bass sound quality is equally middle of the road, doing nothing amazing in their presentation or authority but then again not doing anything fundamentally wrong either. This proves that you can get away with average detail from a speaker set as long as there are no untoward frequencies that stand out like a sore thumb. At moderate volumes they’re a lively set with no major colouration shortcomings, and it’s only when the volume level is pushed up that they compress and lack decent dynamics.

Verdict

If you own a car that already has factory fitted component speakers up front then the Phoenix Gold R65CS set won’t really by an upgrade as they’re close to what OEM systems already provide. If, however, you own an older ride and you have dual cones full range speakers that are perished then at $199 the PG R65CS make more sense on ultra tight budgets.

 

Orion XTR65

Woofer design

  • Diameter: 165mm
  • Cone material: Polypropylene/paper
  • Basket material: Pressed steel

Tweeter design

  • Diameter: 25mm
  • Dome material: Silk
  • Mounting: Flush, Surface

Crossover

  • Slope: 12dB LP/12dB HP
  • Tweeter attenuation: -3, 0, +3dB

Comments

If you like your speakers black then you’ll love Orion’s XTR65 – they’re black from every angle. Black crossovers, black tweeters, black midrange drivers, even black speaker grilles. Yep, black. Design highlights include dual layered polypropylene/paper sandwich midrange cones, big chunky speaker grille covers, nice large 25mm silk dome tweeters with flush or flat surface mount pods, and nice compact passive crossover networks that feature three level tweeter attenuation. Orion also supplies ample speaker wires, thick foam gaskets and ISO mounting brackets for the midrange drivers. From an ease-of-installation perspective the XTR65 set is the class of the field.

Audition

Right off the bat the Orion XTR65 set jumped out as vibrant and exuberant in nature, and have obviously been designed to appeal to an audience that prefers the classic American ‘bad boy’ sound, causing me to immediately bypass my normal more subdued tracks and begin cranking out harder-edged rock that suited their character. The tonal balance is more in your face but in a good way, and the treble afforded by the 25mm silk dome tweeters is likely and detailed, adding an edge to the music that makes these speakers stand out from the pack. The mid bass is pronounced at the upper bass frequencies and tapers of noticeably under 80Hz, while midrange is nicely defined if not offering the last word in smoothness.

Verdict

These are a very likable speaker set, and while SQ aficionados may scoff at their brashness I actually think many younger buyers will prefer this set’s tonal balance to that of the more technically accomplished sets. They really perform well with rock’n’roll music in particular, are keenly priced, and come with a great installation kit. If you like your tunes on the louder side of the equation then the Orion XTR65 are certainly worth auditioning.

 

Conclusion

When we set out to conduct our first ever group comparison review of full range speakers I was hoping that we’d find at least one diamond in the rough that offered above average performance for a reasonable price. As it turned out, I found three sets that served up simply breathtaking performance all priced under $300.

As the basis for an ultra-cost effective sound quality biased system design, either of the Morel Maximo 6, Crescendo Opus 1 or Hertz ESK 165 component sets would make an excellent choice. Of these the Morel and Crescendo share very similar tonal characteristics between them and are both extremely hard to fault in any way. For these speakers to score such consistently high marks for sound quality proves that you don’t need to be well-healed to enjoy extremely accurate and enjoyable music reproduction. Indeed, I’d happily use either set in my own car and I can’t give higher praise than that.

Even though they scored the third highest overall score in this review, in the end I must conclude that the Morel Maximo 6 component set is my personal pick of this bunch, not only for their exemplary sound quality with all styles of music but also because they come with a comprehensive fitting kit while still being considerably more affordable than the opposition. While Morel dealers may be challenging to find compared to better known brands, I whole-heartedly encourage you to seek them out. You’ll be rewarded with not only some of the most accurate and enjoyable sounding speakers available today but they’re also an absolute steal for the price. In all honesty, these $228RRP speakers will stand toe to toe with rivals costing as much as three times the price.

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